Exactly. There's nothing new at all in this story. This is government's message to industry: if you do business with us, we will rip you off. Same goes for consumers and citizens.
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately when I bought it, there was no owner's manual, not sure why, guess I should have asked about it. I suppose I could always purchase one...
I agree... My sorta new car has a very annoying loud beeping sound if I don't have a seatbelt on when I turn the key. I always wear it, and I don't need this stupid warning. Thanks a lot, Ford. Now to figure out which wire I need to clip to disable it...
True... but you could have said that instead of the less compelling argument that cable companies are actually forcing you to pay them to order channels. But rather than calling for yet more regulation, we should be calling for these special monopoly privileges on cable services to be repealed. Then we will begin to see what the public truly wants. Like I just said to someone else, personally, my days of being a cable service subscriber are very numbered. The service they provide is just not compelling enough to spend so much money on.
If you couldn't get cable, satellite, or FIOS, there is always netflix, over air channels, or even read a book or do something otherwise constructive with your life.
Obviously someone is forcing us to pay for PBS, and I am against that as well, but that is not the same thing as my point about cable companies forcing us to watch their crap. Moreover, you can watch PBS over the air too. Personally, my days of cable are numbered. I might even cancel today, now that the Cavaliers playoffs are over. Netflix lets you watch whatever you want without commercials, for cheaper. And they have lots of tv shows on dvd.
Satellite and FIOS aren't any better. A better question, given that PBS is funded by CPB [cpb.org], which in turn is funded by the US Treasury, is "So when did the IRS put a gun to your head and force you to order PBS?"
Nobody forces people to order Satellite or FIOS either. And if you stop paying the IRS, you better believe they will put a gun to your head.
Being forced to support cable channels my family will never watch is the same as being forced to eat one meal a day at that restaurant down the street that no one likes.
So when did someone put a gun to your head and force you to order cable?
Right, which makes me wonder all the more why Apple refuses to follow suit with already established technology. Until established companies start to come out with devices that are completely open, unlocked, etc then they might as well kiss me goodbye as a customer. Either that or I'll wait till something I really want comes down in price to $100 or less. The only reason I have my Razr now is because my old plan ended and I got this one with a new plan. But I'm even starting to get fed up with plans now. Having Skype on a sexy device such as those Apple makes would be great. Even more so if it could hold my full music library.
But there's no way in hell I'm buying into the at&t EDGE network plan to use this phone. If I could have just bought the phone and relied of free Wi-Fi hotspots for data use (and preferably drop my T-Mobile SIM into it and keep my current plan), I would have gladly dropped far more than the $600 price tag to snap one of these things up. OS X "Lite" on a hand-held? Are you kidding me? Even without the phone, I would want it.
I couldn't agree more. I'm no Apple fanboi, but enough with these hideously expensive data plans already! The only way I would shell out $600 for one of these suckers is if it had free wireless and Skype. Unfortunately the iPhone is a bit too big for my preferences too. Tell me when they come out with one that's the size of a RAZR and I might consider it.
Of course the police want to break up riots. They are one of the most threatening things to the government's autonomy. If the agitators have legitimate beefs with the authorities, and can't air them in public, well then we are definitely living in a police state. You can't have freedom without the freedom to assemble.
None of that is to say that filming a public official in public is in and of itself illegal. I agree that we should be watching the watchers, and that journalism, whether corporate of citizen in nature is our best guard against police abuses. However, none of that permits you to stand with your hands in your pockets in a riot zone.
Why shouldn't you be permitted to stand in a riot zone? You aren't hurting anyone else, only risking your own life.
Ask not what you can do for your government. Ask what they can do to you.
It's no more dangerous to families than alcohol drug addiction. Some people just have more of a propensity for addiction than others. The scare tactics used in articles like this don't do anything to address that.
Very true. They print money for the government, for crying out loud. The government is essentially leeching money from us through the fed (via inflation). Not the other way around.
I used to share similar views to yours on the constitution. But now I'm beginning to feel like they simply just left some huge, gaping loopholes in it. Like it or not, the constitution does give the government the right to tax and regulate commerce. I'm starting to think libertarians place way too much stock in it. It is fundamentally a non libertarian document.
My point is that our original brand of democracy was full of loopholes. Like it or not, the founding fathers gave the government a right to regulate interstate commerce. What we have now is a direct result of what they wrote and did, regardless of what they might have meant. Despite this, people still place an inordinate amount of faith in the constitution. But over all, it is just a piece of paper which can be interpreted however you want. When the government is able to appoint its own agents to do this interpretation, abuses are guaranteed to happen.
The inability to share knowledge will collapse a democracy. A democracy can only survive with free access to information, and a population willing to be educated. Soon, we will have neither. How can we trust our neighbor to help run this country when they know nothing?
I would say that free access to information online is actually the number one challenge to government and democratic rule. When people see the myriad of things wrong with those who would exercise force over us, they become that much more disinclined to accept new laws and further loss of freedom. People are beginning to see that the right to vote, in and of itself, does not protect our right to life and the pursuit of happiness. Our brand of democracy is what led to the copyright situation we are now in.
My girlfriend used to be part of a community group in Kent, Ohio that video taped police activity. The cops definitely didn't like it and were always threatening them. Personally, I've been toying with the idea of keeping my camera in the car and placing it on the dash, pointed towards the window, when they try to pull me over.
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Very true, my technology company is ~300 employees and I love working for them. And it's by far the largest company I've worked for so far.
Exactly. There's nothing new at all in this story. This is government's message to industry: if you do business with us, we will rip you off. Same goes for consumers and citizens.
Somehow I don't think the Fortwo is aiming to compete in the SUV space.
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately when I bought it, there was no owner's manual, not sure why, guess I should have asked about it. I suppose I could always purchase one...
I agree... My sorta new car has a very annoying loud beeping sound if I don't have a seatbelt on when I turn the key. I always wear it, and I don't need this stupid warning. Thanks a lot, Ford. Now to figure out which wire I need to clip to disable it...
True... but you could have said that instead of the less compelling argument that cable companies are actually forcing you to pay them to order channels. But rather than calling for yet more regulation, we should be calling for these special monopoly privileges on cable services to be repealed. Then we will begin to see what the public truly wants. Like I just said to someone else, personally, my days of being a cable service subscriber are very numbered. The service they provide is just not compelling enough to spend so much money on.
If you couldn't get cable, satellite, or FIOS, there is always netflix, over air channels, or even read a book or do something otherwise constructive with your life. Obviously someone is forcing us to pay for PBS, and I am against that as well, but that is not the same thing as my point about cable companies forcing us to watch their crap. Moreover, you can watch PBS over the air too. Personally, my days of cable are numbered. I might even cancel today, now that the Cavaliers playoffs are over. Netflix lets you watch whatever you want without commercials, for cheaper. And they have lots of tv shows on dvd.
Ship you off to gitmo?
Right, which makes me wonder all the more why Apple refuses to follow suit with already established technology. Until established companies start to come out with devices that are completely open, unlocked, etc then they might as well kiss me goodbye as a customer. Either that or I'll wait till something I really want comes down in price to $100 or less. The only reason I have my Razr now is because my old plan ended and I got this one with a new plan. But I'm even starting to get fed up with plans now. Having Skype on a sexy device such as those Apple makes would be great. Even more so if it could hold my full music library.
Of course the police want to break up riots. They are one of the most threatening things to the government's autonomy. If the agitators have legitimate beefs with the authorities, and can't air them in public, well then we are definitely living in a police state. You can't have freedom without the freedom to assemble.
Ask not what you can do for your government. Ask what they can do to you.
And we still aren't safe from terrorists. I really wonder how anyone could argue that this isn't a massive waste of money?
If digital ever becomes unbreakable (yeah right) then people will resort to analog recording.
It's no more dangerous to families than alcohol drug addiction. Some people just have more of a propensity for addiction than others. The scare tactics used in articles like this don't do anything to address that.
Too bad voting and democracy is what got us into this mess in the first place.
Very true. They print money for the government, for crying out loud. The government is essentially leeching money from us through the fed (via inflation). Not the other way around.
I used to share similar views to yours on the constitution. But now I'm beginning to feel like they simply just left some huge, gaping loopholes in it. Like it or not, the constitution does give the government the right to tax and regulate commerce. I'm starting to think libertarians place way too much stock in it. It is fundamentally a non libertarian document.
My point is that our original brand of democracy was full of loopholes. Like it or not, the founding fathers gave the government a right to regulate interstate commerce. What we have now is a direct result of what they wrote and did, regardless of what they might have meant. Despite this, people still place an inordinate amount of faith in the constitution. But over all, it is just a piece of paper which can be interpreted however you want. When the government is able to appoint its own agents to do this interpretation, abuses are guaranteed to happen.
My girlfriend used to be part of a community group in Kent, Ohio that video taped police activity. The cops definitely didn't like it and were always threatening them. Personally, I've been toying with the idea of keeping my camera in the car and placing it on the dash, pointed towards the window, when they try to pull me over.